Bastar's forest, land belong to its residents, security camps to become thing of past: Deputy CM

Jagdalpur, Jun 3 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma on Tuesday urged youth to understand what central and state governments have been doing to stamp out the menace of Left-wing extremism and contribute in eliminating the ideology of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).

Sharma, who holds the home portfolio, noted, "Youth should know what Maoism is, where it started and how it started. They have to understand these things." The Deputy Chief Minister made the remarks while speaking on the issue -- 'The ugly face of Maoism - from Beijing to Bastar' -- at an event organized at Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Auditorium in Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar district, an official statement said.

"Youth have to understand what the current government of Chhattisgarh and the Centre have been doing to deal with it. You (youth) have the great power of social media in your hands, any news spreads like a wave among you. I request you to use your social media power for these things,'' he maintained.

The youth of Bastar will help end the Maoist ideology with their efforts and push for development. Security forces will always be there for their protection, the release quoted Sharma as saying.

He said in 1989, a massacre was carried out at Tiananmen Square in Beijing because some youths had demanded democracy.

Sharma said, "Maoists want to form a government with the barrel of a gun. They want to form the government by killing democracy. They want to form the government like they have formed in China. They want to subjugate the people in the same way.'' Referring to the opposition, he said, ''There are some people who travel from here to there, saying that (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ji's government, (CM) Vishnu Dev ji's government are taking action (against Naxalites) so that resources of Bastar are handed over to someone.

"They are trying to spread big lies. I want to tell you that the intention of Chief Minister is very clear -- water, forest and land of Bastar belong to Bastar, to the youth of Bastar, to the people of Bastar. Development of Bastar will be on the Bastar model. It will be done according to Bastar," he asserted.

Sharma said in the coming years, there will be no need for security camps in Bastar. Once Naxalism is eliminated, these camps will become centres for collecting, processing and marketing forest produce. PTI TKP RSY